KUANTAN: The Pahang Fire and Rescue Department today confirmed that the ‘fire’ at the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) in Gebeng near here, last night, did not involve any buildings at the Alliance Steel (M) Sdn Bhd (ASSB) mill.
Fire and Rescue director Nor Hisham Mohammad said the fire was actually due to the burning of excess gas from the coal-fired furnaces.
“In the 9.40pm incident, there was a power outage within the factory and it was not due a short-circuit at the sub-station there.
“When this happened, the extraction fan at the Block Relau where coal is burnt stopped functioning, causing the automatic safety mechanisms to kick in whereby the excess gas from the furnace was channeled out via the heat release chimney,” he said in a statement here.
He said the safety mechanism was to relieve pressure build up in the furnaces and the gas is burnt as it leaves the chimney to avoid air pollution and that the images of the ‘fire’ viralled on social media platforms last night was actually the excess gas being burnt, like is usually seen on oil drilling platforms.
He added that the findings were made by the department’s team despatched to the scene and confirmation was received from TNB that there was no outage or short-circuit attributable to the utility.
ASSB, in a statement to Bernama last night, had said that the fire at its premises was due to a TNB short circuit and that there were no casualties among its staff.
Meanwhile, in Port Dickson, a store for keeping tyres and oil drums in Kampung Kebun Jimah, caught fire at 1.05pm today.
Port Dickson Fire and Rescue Department senior assistant superintendent Mohd Khairul Nizam Mazelan said firemen were still fighting the blaze.
“We are not sure what the drums contain, the flames cannot be extinguished using water because of explosive chemical reactions.
“The Central Operations Centre has mobilised foam collection and the material is being despatched to the scene. As of 3.30pm, the fire is still spreading,” he said. — Bernama
